Because the children at the heart of the story were made wards of court it has not been legally possible to identify them. Only now that they are adults can the story be told - and they are telling the BBC exclusively.

The corporation has challenged Rochdale Council through the family courts and has obtained video evidence of the interviews with the children taken at the time, as social workers desperately tried to prove their unfounded theory that the families had been worshiping the devil and abusing their children.

They show the catalogue of mistakes and manipulations of the truth by social workers that resulted in the enormous personal cost to the families caught up in this satanic panic.

This year, the children take Rochdale council to court in an attempt to get an apology for one of the biggest mistakes ever made in social work.

When Satan Came To Town: The Real Story - BBC ONE on Wednesday 11 January at 2100 GMT.